Mourning the passing of a microfinance pioneer: Dr. Harihar Dev Pant

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>>Authored by Dr. D.S.K. Rao, Regional Director for Asia-Pacific

We learned recently that a great friend of the Microcredit Summit Campaign died of lung cancer earlier this month. Dr. Harihar Dev Pant, a pioneer of microfinance in Nepal, started his career in microfinance as a deputy director in the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB, the country’s central bank), and went on to found one of the largest microfinance banks in Nepal, Nirdhan Utthan Bank Ltd. He was its chairman and CEO till near the end.

As the deputy governor of the central bank, Dr. Pant laid the foundation for microcredit in Nepal. Dr. Pant was greatly influenced by Prof. Muhammad Yunus (to the right) and was indoctrinated by the Nobel laureate into microfinance.

As the deputy governor he was responsible in creating five rural banks in Nepal specializing in microcredit operations and following the Grameen Bank lending methodology. Dr. Pant was the founder-chairman of the first two Grameen Bikas Banks in Nepal: Purbanchal Grameen Bikas Bank and Sudur Paschimanchal Grameen Bikas Bank. After his retirement from the central bank, he created Nirdhan Utthan Bank, which grew rapidly to become one of the largest MFIs in the country.

Dr. Pant was also a great friend of Microcredit Summit Campaign. He attended all of the Summits in the early years and acted as a panelist many times in plenaries and workshop sessions. His latest contribution was at the Global Microcredit Summit 2011 in Spain. He shared how his staff managed to reach remote, mountainous areas of Nepal, and how Nirdhan manages to balance the necessity of being profitable and meeting their social mission.

Dr. D.S.K. Rao

Whenever I visited Nepal in 2000s, Dr. Pant extended full cooperation. He introduced me to the promoters of all the major MFIs in the country and helped me to develop a rapport with them. He also helped in organizing workshops, participated with microfinance stakeholders, particularly practitioners.

Dr. Pant was very keen that Nirdhan, the bank he promoted, have a strong poverty focus. He commenced the service by offering loans of Rs.3,000 to Rs.5,000 ($28-47) to underprivileged women to run microenterprises. Dr. Pant also showed a keen interest in qualitative poverty measurement tools, such as the CASHPOR Housing Index and poverty wealth ranking, and he introduced them in his bank. He was deeply concerned that microfinance too, like formal banks, may be missing the really poor households. He gave much more importance to depth of poverty outreach over scaling up the program through reckless financing.

Dr. Pant keenly followed the progress of microfinance in Asia, particularly in South Asia. One could speak to him on any subject, ranging from banking, finance, economics, culture, and, of course, politics. Such was his passion towards microfinance that despite severe setbacks to his health in the last couple of years, Dr. Pant continued his active involvement with the sector.

Dr. Pant had been suffering from lung cancer for the last seven months. He was diagnosed in February and received treatment at Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital in New Delhi, India. Lately, he underwent treatment at Nepal Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Lalitpur. He passed away at his residence in Anamnagar, Kathmandu on September 8th.

Pant was the father figure of microfinance in Nepal. A kind and jovial person. Deep condolences to his family.

May his soul rest in peace.

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Additional words of remembrance

“When the Microcredit Summit Campaign was launched 18 years ago, I found it quite remarkable that a high ranking Central Bank official in any country had so fully embraced microfinance for the very poor. But that is what Dr. HD Pant had done and it was an honor to have his wisdom and commitment contribute to the success of the Summits that followed. I hope his family and friends find some solace in the greatness of his achievements.”
— Sam Daley-Harris, Founder, Microcredit Summit Campaign; and CEO, Center for Citizen Empowerment and Transformation (CCET)

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“He was a good friend and served the microfinance sector with devotion and dedication. While I focused in the eastern region of Nepal, Dr. Pant worked in the western region in the districts of Rupandehi, Kapilbastu and Nawalparasi. We competed and also complemented each other. Dr. Pant was an honest and hardworking man, wholly committed towards his work for the poor. It is very sad to lose a colleague and friend of many years.”
— Shankar Man Shrestha, Chairman, Centre for Self-help Development; and former CEO, Rural Microfinance Development Centre Ltd.

Event Recap: Partnerships to End Poverty Workshop

RESULTS grassroots activists discuss the policy implications of the six pathways that were presented by the Microcredit Summit Campaign. It’s now their turn as RESULTS volunteers to decide what to do with that information. Learn how you can join RESULTS.

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On Sunday, July 19th, the Microcredit Summit Campaign hosted a standing-room-only workshop with attendees to the 2015 RESULTS International Conference. Those who came heard from leading voices on the future of financial inclusion, focusing on the crucial role of partnerships and advocacy in reaching the poorest.

Larry Reed, director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, began the session by introducing the Campaign’s role in pushing for an understanding that achieving full financial inclusion means including those living in extreme poverty.

From the start, the Microcredit Summit Campaign has advocated scaling up microfinance and other financial inclusion interventions. They can provide those living in extreme poverty with the diverse array of financial and non-financial services that will support their journey out of poverty.

Reed spoke about the need for continued innovation in client-centered development of financial tools, creative ideas for reaching the hard-to-reach at affordable prices, and the promise that smart microfinance can help create positive and durable changes in the lives of those being served.

Read more about the six pathways.

The Campaign is advocating for closer consideration of six financial inclusion strategies — our “six pathways” — that show promise in reaching people living in extreme poverty with needed products and services. These are the six pathways:

1. Integrated health and microfinance
2. Savings groups
3. Graduation programs
4. Financial technology
5. Agricultural value chains
6. Conditional cash transfers

In the discussion that followed, moderated by Sonja Kelly (fellow at the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion), the panelists responded to questions about the importance of partnerships in achieving the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and the role, present and future, of microfinance and financial inclusion in supporting these efforts.

DSK Rao, regional director for Asia-Pacific at the Campaign, focused on the immense potential for integration of health education and services into the delivery model of microfinance. He explained that “microfinance institutions shouldn’t run hospitals, but should spread essential health information and services to their clients when needed.”

Rao explained that the presence of MFIs, with their deep penetration into hard-to-reach communities, offer important opportunities to also deliver valuable health services (both financial and non-financial) to families often excluded from more mainstream service channels.

Larry Reed discussion possible advocacy options RESULTS’ citizen activists could take to policy makers in the coming days and months.

Reed also expanded on the power of government partnerships — specifically through conditional cash transfer and graduation programs — to reach those living further down the poverty ladder than those included in other social protection program designs.

Another guest speaker in the workshop, Olumide Elegbe from FHI 360, has extensive experience designing long-term partnerships between the government, nonprofit, and private sectors. He explained that “successful development is cross-sectoral and integrated,” much like poverty itself.

The mission of RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund, the parent organization of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, is to end the worst aspects of hunger and poverty. The annual International Conference aims to empower their grassroots activists from around the world to become strong and knowledgeable advocates for issues related to the RESULTS mission.

Therefore, after the panel discussion, workshop participants broke into small groups to take the discussion into brainstorming advocacy actions that can promote the kinds of financial inclusion interventions that will help end extreme poverty. These small group discussions focused on tangible points of action both for the longer term future as well as in anticipation of their meetings with representatives on Capitol Hill and at the World Bank on Tuesday, July 21st.

Voice your opinion in our comments section. How can you advocate for financial inclusion?

Become a citizen advocate!

The Microcredit Summit Campaign’s role at RESULTS is to lift up microfinance solutions designed for the world’s extreme poor, creating economic opportunities to help lift themselves out of poverty.

The Campaign hosted a standing-room-only workshop with attendees to the 2015 RESULTS International Conference who came to hear from leading voices on the future of financial inclusion and the crucial role of partnerships and advocacy in reaching the poorest. Read RESULTS’ annual report today!

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Related reading

• Building resilience for the world’s poor: the $1.50 challenge
• Tackling poverty by combining saving, training, and microcredit
• Fix it or replace it? (On the question of: If not microfinance, then what else?